Subject:
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Re: I am appalled...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Sat, 9 Dec 2000 02:01:00 GMT
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Viewed:
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1481 times
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Roboriders could be saved for us big kids (I just turned 16, twenty years
ago) with a few minor changes.
1. Split the ball joint cross axle off of the leg assembly. I can do this
myself, but I hate to take a razor saw to Lego parts. The detatched
ball/axle is a great part.
2. Make the gearbox/decoration parts into actually useful gearboxes. They
are very close to being useful, but I can't figure out how, with all the
decorative molded-on cruft.
3. Make the flat throwing spring-fork into components. A flat spring with
some axles on the end would make a nice part.
4. Use some of the uncommon mechanical parts, such as transmission parts,
for decorations. Is it true that the Boss roborider uses driving rings as
decorations? A few good mechanical parts would make the kit worth while. If
they used some of the unusual gears for decorations, I'd buy a few dozen for
parts.
If some of the big juniorization molded-together parts were split just a
tiny bit, we would have a bunch of cool new mechanical parts.
The thing that impresses me the most about Lego is the really excellent and
versitile design of their 1990's parts. For example, the basic gear set is
really brilliant. Adding the off-axis axle and peg holes was a work of
genius. They fit together in so many ways and can be turned into so many
things. Plug in some pins and you have a trip wheel, run the axle through
the off axis hole and you have a pawl, etc etc. The sizes, 1 1.5 3 5 7,
neatly cover the low primes, allowing a huge range of integer gear ratios
and a lot more. They use a carefully designed tooth pattern that allows just
the right combination of efficiency, flexability, positioning, durability,
and low lash. They work well as spur gears, pawls, ratchets, sprockets and
wheels. Somebody realy thought about those gears for a long time.
The roborider molded-together semi-gearbox with a half gear jammed on is
close to useless for practical applications. I've never seen a picture of a
mechanical thing that uses one in any functional way. I think they intend
for them to be useful, because they have some axle holes and some places to
fit gears, but they don't quite make it.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: I am appalled...
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| (...) I wondered what that half molded gear was for too. Turns out that it allows to gearboxes to be attached together- the half gear on the bottom of one works with the worm gear on the top of the other. Here's a picture- (URL) a result of (...) (24 years ago, 10-Dec-00, to lugnet.technic)
| | | Re: I am appalled...
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| Yay! It looks like Lego is listening, and they dejuniorized the ball joint by making it a ball with an axle hole. This converts it into a great part (...) (24 years ago, 21-Dec-00, to lugnet.technic)
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